Fall Preview 2016: Is ‘Timeless’ NBC’s biggest chance at replicating ‘Blindspot,’ ‘The Blacklist’?

Three times over the past four years, NBC has picked up a drama series with an ambitious premise and a female lead and aired it after “The Voice.” First, it was “The Blacklist,” and following that we had “Blindspot.”

This time around, we have a series in “Timeless” that is certainly jumping on the time-travel trope at the same time as many other shows across the board, but it does have a few things going for it that others do not. For one, it has an all-star creative team that includes “Supernatural” creator Eric Kripke and Shawn Ryan of “The Shield” fame. It also has the criminally-underrated Abigail Spencer in the leading role of a historian named Lucy Preston, who finds herself responsible for helping a team preserve the future of America by going to the past.

Premiere Date and Timeslot Competition – Monday, October 3 at 10:00 p.m. Eastern time. The show is up against “Scorpion” in a new timeslot and then also new legal drama “Conviction.” There may be some timeslot carry-over, but this will appeal more to genre fans and potentially history buffs.

Logline – “An unlikely trio who travel through time to battle a master criminal intent on altering the fabric of human history with potentially catastrophic results.”

Cast – Abigail Spencer (“Rectify”), Matt Lanter (“90210”), Malcolm Barrett, Goran Visnjic, Paterson Joseph, Sakina Jaffrey, and Claudia Doumi.

Trailer – Other than an extremely poor use of green screen at one point, this feels fairly solid. Sure, the story seems relatively derivative from a hundred other things, but the style and most of the visuals (aside from the special effects) feel fantastic. We like that there is a chance you could see a new world on a fairly regular basis, and this could help to differentiate it from other network dramas.

Overall Take – For now, we’re optimistic on “Timeless.” It has a focus that the super-unwieldy “Legends of Tomorrow” did not, and concentrating on a small cast is a good way to preserve long-term viability. You can add to it once you know people like the people who are on board. For now, this is the closest thing NBC has to sure-fire hit. It should get off to great ratings right from the get-go, and we feel fairly confident that we’ll get a second season … and that’s a big statement given that we’re writing this on August 1.